On a recent afternoon, Wendler Middle School Principal Marcus Wilson watched over the hallways during a passing period. Students walked to class carrying books, binders and calculators. But noticeably absent: cellphones. Wilson was one of the first principals in the Anchorage School District to ban phones during the school day and, he said, parents have supported the strict policy.
“Parents, surprisingly, were 100% behind it and were thanking the school, because it really did take the fight out of their hands where they didn’t have to fight their kids about putting devices away,” Wilson said.
Across the country, educators like Wilson are wrestling with cellphones in schools. A growing number of districts are banning the devices all together, citing negative impacts on learning and students’ mental health.
The Anchorage School District already has rules about ways students can’t use cellphones — like they can’t use phones to cheat or bully each other. But it’s up to individual principals right now to enforce those rules, and to decide whether students can have their phones in classrooms and hallways at all.
Wilson is among about a dozen Anchorage middle and high school principals who have started banning or restricting students’ cellphone use. Many parents have praised the move, but not every student has been eager to unplug. Still, principals say they’re seeing an immediate impact in students’ attention span and mental health. Plus, it’s easier to police phone use when they’re not allowed — period.
“Before this policy came out, you know it really was a gray area. A student has a phone out underneath the desk, teacher sees it, teacher calls a student out on it, but that student said, ‘I’m not on my device. I just have it out,’” Wilson said. “Then you’re kind of getting into a back-and-forth, who’s right, who’s wrong, parents kind of get into it. But having this policy in place takes that fight away”
Wilson said he noticed the need for a phone ban after the COVID-19 pandemic. Students returned to in-person learning ensconced in their phones — too distracted to pay attention in class. He said some students were using their phones to plan meetups to vape in the bathroom, arrange fights at school or bully each other online throughout the day, oftentimes during class.
Wendler’s phone ban went into place last fall
Across town at South High School, principal Luke Almon also implemented new cellphone rules last fall — after consulting with parents. He said freshmen showed significant academic growth in the first year without phones, but the difference in behavior was even more noticeable.
“The ‘23-‘24 school year, at least from our experience of it, was a calmer school year, more peaceful, more fluent communication, less harassment, less external suspensions, ” Almon said. “All of our metrics on our climate survey went up measurably between last year and this year.”
He said other factors could have helped too, but the new cellphone policy was the clearest difference between the two school years. There is some nuance between the policies at different schools. At Wendler, students face disciplinary action if they’re caught using cellphones at any time during school hours. At South, the policy stops at the classroom door, allowing students to use phones during their open-campus lunch and passing periods.
Private Catholic high school Lumen Christi in Anchorage was the state’s first to ban cellphones in 2019. A few schools in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District are using magnetic pouches to keep cellphones away from students. Meanwhile, Fairbanks North Star Borough School District staff are preparing an update to their district cellphone policy, which was last revised in 2011.
Anchorage School Board member Kelly Lessens said she is working on an update to the district’s policy, which hasn’t been revised since 2012. Lessens said she hopes to pass an update in time for next school year, but wants to hear from community members first.
“We have a policy that is, you know, from a technological standpoint, it’s a generation out of date,” Lessens said. “Our community wants to see students who read, who can do math, who graduate on time, and I think that the board has a responsibility to optimize our learning environment.”
Courtney Luff is the vice president of South’s Parent Teacher Student Organization. She has twin seniors at South, and said that after the pandemic her kids were attached to their devices. She’s happy they’ll have to put them away in class
“This is going to have a great impact on kids, because they are so glued to their cellphones, and parents are glued to their cellphones, and we want instant access all day long to each other that, for me, I was like, nope, this is great,” Luff said. “My kids don’t need a cellphone, and I don’t need access to my kids 24/7.”
Luff’s daughter Lexi said sometimes she’s actually more distracted in class without music to drown other students out, but feels that the cellphone ban has a positive impact overall.
“It’s uncomfortable for us to do this right now because, obviously, it’s new for us, but I think in the long run it’ll be beneficial,” she said. “It’s good that we’re getting in that uncomfortable phase and getting used to it because these are skills you need to learn for later in life.”
Lexi Luff said she’s now being reminded to stop talking during class, when teachers used to ask her to put her phone away. In the first week back at school, she said her average screen time decreased by about five hours each day.
Tim Rockey is the producer of Alaska News Nightly and covers education for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at trockey@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8487. Read more about Tim here.
